de government
folks. So I settled it at 80 years old. Dat gives me respect from
everybody dat I sees. Den it is de truth, too, kaise I come along wid
everybody dat is done gone and died now. De few white folks what I was
contemperment (contemporary) wid, 'lows dat I is 80 and dey is dat, too.

"You know dat I does 'member when dat Sherman man went through here wid
dem awful mens he had. Dey 'lowed dat dey was gwine to Charlotte to git
back to Columbia. I never is heard of sech befo' or since. We lived at
old man Jerry Moss's in Yorkville, way back den. Yes sir, everyone said
Yorkville, den, but dey ain't never called Gaffney like dat. Stories
goes round 'bout Sherman shooting folks. Some say dat he shot a big rock
off'n de State House in Columbia. My Ma and my Pa, Henry and Charity
Rice, hid me wid dem when Sherman come along. Us never see'd him, Lawd
God no, us never wanted to see him.

"Folks allus crying hard times dese days, ain't no hard times now like
it was atter Sherman went through Yorkville. My ma and pa give me ash
cake and 'simmon beer to eat for days atter dat. White folks never had
no mo', not till a new crop was grow'd. Dat year de seasons was good and
gardens done well. Till den us nearly starved and we never had no easy
time gitting garden seed to plant, neither.

"Yes sir, if I's handy to locust I makes locust beer; den if I's handy
to 'simmons, why den I makes 'simmon beer. Now it's jes' for to pass de
time dat us does dat. But gwine back to de war; den it was for
necessity. Dese young'uns now don't know what hard times is. Dey all has
bread and meat and coffee, no matter how poor dey is. If dey had to live
for days and weeks on ash cake and 'simmon beer, as us did den, and work
and wait on a crop wid nothing but dat in deir bellies; den dey could
grumble hard times. I allus tells 'em to shut up when dey starts
anything like dat around me.

"When dat crop come along, we sho did fall in and save all us could for
de next year. Every kind of seed and pod dat grow'd we saved and dried
for next spring or fall planting. Atter folks is once had deir belly
aching and growling for victuals, dey ain't never gwine to throw no
rations and things away no mo'. Young folks is powerful wasteful, but if
something come along to break up deir good time like it did to us when
dat man Sherman held everything up, dey sho will take heed, and dey
won't grumble 'bout it neither, cause dey won't have no time to grumble.